Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri in tears as Foxes close on Premier League

Posted Monday, April 11, 2016 by ESPN

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri in tears as Foxes close on Premier League
Claudio Ranieri says he was not worried when Sunderland were pressing for an equaliser in the second half of Leicester City's 2-0 win.

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri was emotional after his side beat Sunderland 2-0 to go seven points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

Jamie Vardy scored twice to continue Leicester's incredible season and put them on the brink of sealing the most remarkable title in Premier League history.

Ranieri appeared to shed a tear on the pitch after watching his team bank three more points and admitted he had been moved by what he saw as the team coach arrived on Wearside.

He told a news conference: "It's fantastic when you see before the match a lot of old ladies with Leicester shirts outside the stadium. I said 'Unbelievable, they came from Leicester to support us'. That is emotional, that is fantastic, that is football.

"I want through you to say thank you for the support. It's unbelievable. They are amazing. They are dreaming and we want to continue to dream. But to do this, we must be concentrated.''

Asked if it was difficult to hear people saying the title is already theirs, the Italian said: "No, no, no. They can continue to say it. No, no, no, no.

"But it's important our focus, our concentration is on the next match. I said this to the players: 'Well done, we won today, but now we have two matches. The first against West Ham is a very, very difficult match because West Ham are a fantastic team with good players and everything right; and after, there is Swansea, another difficult match. Now we are happy, but from tomorrow, be focussed'.

"Every time I speak to them, it is 'Next match, next match'. I don't want to see more than the next match.''

Ranieri also paid tribute to Vardy and the fans as Leicester's incredible rise continues.

"It's amazing. I want to say thank you to everybody who came," Ranieri told BBC Sport. "Nobody could have believed we would be in this position -- but now we have to fight and fight.

"We knew it would be tough, it is normal because Sunderland are fighting to be safe, but I am very happy for the three points. Our performance was very solid, of course they had the chance to draw but we had three or four chances to finish it early.

"It is important for Jamie Vardy to score because he made some good assists in the last game but he is our goalscorer and he needed to score again and I am very happy with him.

"The fans must continue to dream but we must continue to be concentrated and focused. Now we have two tough matches at home, the Champions League is on the table and we have to keep it. We don't achieve nothing yet.

"We have to stay calm, be focused, strong, solid and keep going. You make this job for the emotion you feel inside but it is difficult for me to tell what kind of emotion. Today we made some mistakes, we still have to look at what is not right."

Vardy added: "Coming off the Sunderland fans were clapping us as well which is brilliant. It was a great game, we knew it would be tough but managed to grind it out. It's a step closer to possibly winning the league. We'll enjoy this for the rest of the day and then get back to training for the next week."

Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce admitted he was disappointed that his side could not put up more of a fight.

"We were nervous today because of how big the game is. It's a legacy of not picking up the points when we should have done," he said. "That caused us to do the wrong things to try and get back in the game.

"We didn't pass it anywhere near as well as we can. I think that was the main problem, not Leicester.

"We kept losing the ball in good areas, it was nothing like the passing game we showed against West Brom. We switched off once and our defence allows Jamie Vardy to do what is his major strength.

"He does what every top goalscorer does and scores it. The disappointing thing was how we reacted to that."